On Episode 329 of Shop Talk Show, I joined Chris Coyier and Dave Rupert to talk about the role portfolios have in getting a ful-time job, and how you can increase your odds of getting a job. We talked about many things, one of which was the all-time popular objection: “But I don’t have anything good to put in my portfolio!” So, we’re putting our money where our mouth is and looking for an up-and-coming new designer to work with me to redesign the Shop Talk Show website!

Here’s the deal: I’ll creative direct it, you design it. That means I’ll be providing oversight, ideas, inspiration, and guidance while you do the actual pixel-pushing in Sketch/Photoshop/Figma/whatever to make the screens we’ll all need. Chris and Dave act as clients, but will also be coding what we come up with.

We want this to be an opportunity for a designer who might have have something like it otherwise. If you have lots of portfolio pieces, this probably isn’t the gig for you. If you work full-time as a designer somewhere, this probably isn’t the gig for you.

Some criteria for our ideal designer:

• You’re in an underrepresented group in this field.
• You’re looking to change careers from whatever you’re currently doing into becoming a full-time designer.
• You need an opportunity like this project to break into the field, because you’ve had a difficult time getting someone to hire you to do design work for them.
• You have some tolerance for hard work and transparency. Chris, Dave, and I all have an affinity for working in public, so that’ll likely be some part of this. Be prepared for some amount of live-streaming conversations, posting work before it’s done, and being able to publicly track the progress of this work.
• You’re a Shop Talk Show listener (at have least listened to an episode or two).

Still here? Great! We’re taking applications for this opportunity until about October 1, at which time we’ll sort through the applications to see if there’s a good fit. Without further ado…

Apply here!

Chris, Dave, and I would love any comments or feedback you have about how we can make this better for everyone involved (including those sitting on the sidelines, watching all this unfold). If you have any questions, tweet at me, either publicly or privately.

Let’s make something great!

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